Biographies of Prominent Quebec Historical
Figures

Maurice Duplessis (1890-1959)

Claude Bélanger,
Department of History,
Marianopolis College

First elected to the Quebec House of Assembly
in 1927, Duplessis became the leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec in 1933; his party joined forces with Paul Gouin'sAction libérale nationale in 1935 to form the Union Nationale party which was successful at the polls in 1936. As the leader of the U.N. party, Duplessis won every elections in Quebec until 1959, except for that of 1939. In his first administration, between 1936 and 1939, he was a great disappointment, having been elected on a progressive platform that he soon abandoned after the election. In this early period, his only claim to fame was the issuance of the controvertial Padlock
law in 1937. Prime Minister of
Quebec in a period of widespread
centralization, in the war and post-war periods, Duplessis became the
most important proponent of provincial
autonomy. He made it the corner stone of his success. Among his
most famous autonomist moves were the rejection of fiscal
arrangements in the post-war period, the refusal of federal grants
to universities, the establishment of the Tremblay
Commission on constitutional problems and the creation of a provincial
income tax scheme. To this day Quebec is the only province of Canada
with its own income tax collection scheme. However, these popular autonomist
measures were coupled with a staunchly conservative stand in social
and economic affairs. Many believed his regime an anachronism, that
he was corrupt, that he sold the resources of the province to the
highest bidder, indeed that he was a "negro-king",
that he disregarded completely human rights, that overall his years
in power should be considered as les années noires [Dark
years]. This led eventually to massive frustrations which were
vented after his death (Quiet Revolution).
Such harsh judgments have been nuanced by the more recent research and
writing on Duplessis; some praise the stability of the province and
its economic performance under his rule;
others increasingly recognized him as having initiated the modernisation
of Quebec.